Walking and cycling holidays : All the Pyrenees

Our Pyrenees & Your Pyrenees

We Pyreneans are proud to belong to the prestige collection of the world’s greatest mountain ranges – the Rockies and Andes, the Himalayas and Caucasus, the Alps and Pyrenees.

The Pyrenees are upto 80 miles wide and less than 300 miles coast-to-coast, but well over 500 miles by walking paths, and cram in a huge amount of variety. Our natural trees, shrubs and flowers are as varied as they are useful and beautiful. We can grow sub-tropical crops in our gardens, yet have snow resting in gullies right through the summer. We are as keen on walking in summer as we are snow-shoeing in winter. We have wild bears as well as our unique “goat-antelope”, the chamois, while our cows and brebis (tough mountain sheep) share the high pastures in summer with cuddly marmots and lightening fast pine martens.

We are a peace loving people (as all mountain people tend to be) except when unreasonably challenged – for example by Muslims from the south (we stopped their advance in the 9^th century), and Catholic forces from the north in the 13^th century – but we have always welcomed pilgrims using our ancient pathways to cross our mountains on the St James route to Santiago de Compostela. Yet left to our own devices, we love nothing more than the quiet life: farming and family, walking and cooking, community life and the education of our children (we are among the best performing regions in Europe). Here we live without frontiers – borders are rarely visible between Spain and France - and our ancient Catalan culture unites us.

And culture is something we are particularly proud of. We are as proud and protective of our large numbers of medieval monasteries, hermitages, churches, citadels, walled villages and towns, museums and art galleries as we are of our many natural wonders including Cirque de Gavarnie, Mont Perdu, Spanish Lakeland, the Pyrenean Mediterranean coast, and numerous glorious valleys.

These are just some of the reasons why visitors tend to get The Pyrenean Bug. It’s a very benign Bug that makes you want to come back time and time, not least because there is so much more to discover and enjoy. To be honest, Purely Pyrenees is both a cause and cure for that Bug. All our walking and cycling itineraries are packed with Pyrenean highlights – often 2 or 3 in just one day – so we help you to catch the Bug, and cure the itch – temporarily at least.

The simple fact is that when you come to the Pyrenees, you will discover its wide ranging pleasures and pleasant surprises for yourselves. We don’t need to “sell” it to you. We just need to make sure you get the experience that’s right for you – that best meets your needs and wants. And that’s what Purely Pyrenees is all about: you and Your Pyrenees. We are sure you will enjoy it as much as we enjoy Our Pyrenees.